The Portland daily press., 1887-07-11
JEFF DAVIS
Talks verboseIy Abont the Late Un-
pIeasantness.

BALTIMORE, July 9.-The Morning Herald
will publish tomorrow six column contri-
button, giving an account of a recent i'm
portant interview with jefferson Davis. In
the interview Davis, among other things,
charges that the federal government con-
spired during the late war to have him as
sassinated On this subject Mr.. Davis says:
''While the Confederate government was
at Montgomery, Ala, in 1861, received an
anonymous letter from Philadelphia, the
substance of which was that the Governor
of Pennsylvania had released noted des-
perado from the penitentiary upon condition
that he would go to Montgomery and assas
sinate me, with promise of reward of $780,
600 if he succeeded. After the release the
man stated that he could not probably sue
ceed alone and he gave the name of another
convict of character like his own, with
whose assistance he felt sure of success, and
the second convict was released to accom-
pany the first"
Davis then told of the many narrow
escapes he had from the assassins' bullets,
railroad wrecks and other devices which
were connected to put an end to his life. Oi
one would-be assassin Davis says:
81 directed him to be sent to Gen. Lee at
Petersburg, with an explanatory note, and
in the hope that he would be put in the
front line to stop ball intended for better
man. What became of him | never learned
Matters OF larger Importance engrOSsed the
attention of Gen. Lee as well as of myself"
Davis gave his motives and political status
in 1861, and claims that he was never dis
unionist, but that northern senators rejected
at that time every proposition that promised
pacifcation. He refers to b. +. Buffers
voting for him 81 times at Charleston, s. c.,
in 1860, as the candidate of the Democratic
ri President fO
and declares that he did not desire to be Pre-
sident of the Confederacy, and took prompt
and, as he thought, adequate means to pre-
vent it. After his election and Inauguration
at Montgomery, all his efforts were directed
towards securing for the seeding states a
peaceful separation, though he never
thought of going back into the Union to
escape the last resort to the arbitrement OF
arms.
Davis discussed his experiences as Secre-
tary of Pierce's cabinet and u. s. Senator
from Mississippi, his career as President OF
the Southern Confederacy. and was eloquent
in his praise Of Gen. Albert Sydney John
son, Lee. jackson and A. p. Hill. He says
johnson had no peer on either side during
the war, if he ever had during American
history, and his loss to the Confederacy was
irreparable. Lee was his associate and
friend, at West Point with Leonidas
Polk and James B. Magruder, and
there never was. aught but harmony
between them. And speaking of the seven
days battle around Richmond, Davis says,
Lee conceived and executed desperate
plan to turn and flank McLellan's army and
added that the failure to annihilate the Fed
eral army was due chiefly to the fact that
Gen. Lee had no maps of the country below
Richmond and that his army moved in igno-
rance of the country and with guides who
for the most part proved themselves utterly
inefficient. he says that Gen. Lees object
in the retreat from Petersburg. In the last
days of the war, was to reach Danville, then
unite with Johnston and crush Sherman be-
fore Grant could join him. He declares that
Mcclellan and Meade were the two best Fed
eral generals, and had the former been per-
mitted to lay out his campaign against Rich
hearty support of the Federal war depart
ment it would have resulted disastrously to
the Confederates.